Top 25 Directors of All Time

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The epitome of the auteur theory of directing, Bergman never made a film that didn't speak profoundly to the human condition. His films debate some of the great philosophical, moral, political, and religious questions of the latter half of the 20th Century, all the while managing to avoid being didactic. My favorites include Through a Glass, Darkly (1961), The Seventh Seal (1957), and Wild Strawberries (1957).

The common consensus has it that JLG is the greatest of the French New Wave directors, though fans of Truffaut and Melville might take issue. Though difficult and controversial, and with a tendency to brake some of the basic technical rules of filmaking (the eye line rule, 30 degrees rule, eschewing a fade to black to indicate passage of time), his films are nothing if not compelling. His reliance on the 'long shot' alone is considered one of the defining techniques of the New Wave school. My favorites of his are Vivre sa vie (1962), A bout souffle (1960), and Masculin feminin (1966).

Without a doubt, Kurosawa is the greatest director Japan has ever produced. He's the reason Clint Eastwood has a career, as it was the 'spaghetti western' remake of the Kurosawa film Yojimbo (1961, remade as Fistfull of Dollars, Leone, 1964) which launched Eastwood into stardom, nevermind films such as Shichinin no Samurai (1954, remade as The Magnificent Seven, Sturges, 1960), for which he has never been fully acknowledged in America. His film Roshamon (1950), to me, particularly stands out both for it's stylistic brilliance as well as it's argument against absolute truth. If it's any indication, Bergman once reflected, "Now I want to make it plain that The Virgin Spring must be regarded as an aberration. It's touristic, a lousy imitation of Kurosawa."

Probably the best known auteur of the German expressionist movement (which would inform such important work as metteur-en-scene Ridley Scott's Bladerunner, 1982), Fritz Lang's contributions to the development of genre films in particular and film history in general cannot be overstated. His 1927 science-fiction masterpiece Metropolis is commonly believed to be the first feature length sci-fi film, and the first feature film to include a robot (named Maria, who would later serve as the inspiration for Lucas's C3-PO in Star Wars, 1977). In addition to being Germany's first 'talkie,' his 1931 film M, starring Peter Lorre as a pederastic child murder, was not only decades ahead of its time in terms of subject, it pioneered the technique of associating a specific piece of music (Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King") with a specific character (Lorre's Hans Beckert). Further, his film noir works The Big Heat (1953), Clash by Night (1952), and While the City Sleeps (1956) are considered archetypal within the genre.

Quite possibly the most underappreciated of the French New Wave directors, Melville (whose surname was a nom de guerre taken from his favorite author, Herman Melville) was making New Wave films before the movement is commonly thought to have begun. While better known for his quietly stylish gangster films such as Le Deuxieme Souffle (1966), Le Samourai (1967), and Le Cercle rouge (1970), my personal favorite has to be his existentialist meditation on the French Resistance during World War II, L'Armee des ombres (1969). Interestingly, Melville was a self-described prude never really showed any actual sex in his movies. In contrast, however, works like Le Samourai come across as highly sexually charged despite the conspicuous absence of nudity.

Though he was in his time better known for his volcanic performances as an actor, Cassavetes's real contribution to cinema must be his directorial efforts. Known as the father of the American independent film movement, his directorial debut Shadows (1960) was remarkable because it is commonly considered the first truly independent film made (Cassavetes went $40k into debt financing it), it arose almost entirely from improvisation rather than scripting, and for its controversial story arc (involving a white man who is surprised to learn, post-coitus, that his tanned girlfriend is really a light skinned black girl, not to mention some bedroom scenes which were shocking by the standards of the day). He went on to direct independent classics such as Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), Husbands (1970), Faces (1968) which was nominated for three Academy Awards. The masterwork of his filmography, however, was A Woman Under the Influence (1974), in which wife Gena Rowlands gave arguably the best depiction of descent into madness. Additionally, 'A Woman' has the distinction of being the first film produced, distributed, and screened completely outside the 'studio system.'

Comments

Many directors of your list unfortunately I do not know the works. Among those who know Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Roman Polanski are my favorites. Great list.

Many directors of your list unfortunately I do not know the works. Among those who know Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Roman Polanski are my favorites. Great list.